Category: Uncategorized

The tulips are in bloom! This bike tour samples the feast of colour provided by wonderful beds of tulips planted throughout the city.  

 Our tour begins downtown at the corner of Murray St and Mackenzie Ave on the edge of Majors Hill Park where you will see some beautiful beds of tulips.

Head up and through Majors Hill Park where you will see more great displays of of our featured flower. 

Cross Mackenzie Ave at the lights located on the southern end of the park, behind the Chateau Laurier.

Take the bi-directional bike path a short distance north to Wellington St, then turn right on Wellington before navigating over to the War Memorial. Very nice displays can be seen in front of the memorial.

There is a bike path across from the War Memorial that heads down behind the National Arts Centre and along the Rideau Canal before becoming the Rideau Canal Western Pathway. Follow this path along the canal, past more beautiful flora displays, all the way to Princess Patricia Way. Cross Queen Elizabeth Driveway over to the path that continues parallel on the opposite side. The impressive arrangement can be found just south along this path.

Continue on this path, then cross back to the pathway that runs along the canal, just after passing under the Bank St Bridge. Just as you arrive at Dow’s Lake, cross Prince of Wales Drive oce again into Commissioners Park. This is the main site of Ottawa’s seasonal tulip display.

The path weaves its way north west through the park past colourful displays of tulips around Dows lake. 

The best time to do this ride is early on a weekday morning before the crowds arrive. The flowers still look great at all times, however you will most likely  require walking your bike through the park at other times of the day, especially on weekends when it becomes a bit of a mob scene.

Our ride ends at western end of Commissioners Park, at the corner of Preston St and Prince of Wales Drive. One bed of pink and purple tulips in the park is the Queen Juliana Gift Bed. These tulips are an annual gift of thousands of bulbs from the Dutch Royal Family in memory of the bond between Canada and Holland after Canada’s participation in the liberation of the Netherlands during World War II. As well in 1943, while they were staying in Ottawa after fleeing the war, Dutch Princess Juliana gave birth to her third child, Margriet at the Ottawa Civic Hospital.

 

We are lucky to have three nice waterfalls in the city – Hog’s Back Falls along the Rideau River, the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River and the Rideau Falls where the Rideau River spills into the Ottawa River. The spring runoff makes them particularly awesome at this time of year, however all of these falls are still worth checking out any time of the year. Here is a 14km bike tour almost entirely along bike paths that visits all three sites.

Hog’s Back Falls was originally a set of rapids known as the Three Rocks Rapids, but the building of the Rideau Canal resulted in the more spectacular version we have now. More on the transformation from rapids to falls is described in these two links:

A Rapid Ride: The Billings shoot Hogs Back “Falls”.  

 Washed Away The Story of the Building of the Hogs Back Dam.

Next stop – the Chaudière Falls on the Ottawa River, just west of Parliament Hill. When french explorer Samuel de Champlain  arrived at the falls he noted how its elongated curved form and volume of water flowing over it ressembled a boiling cauldron, or chaudière. More on the history of the Chaudière Falls can be found here.

The above map shows three great locations from which you can view the falls.

Last stop – the Rideau Falls! The Rideau River ends by spilling down into the Ottawa River in most spectacular form resembling a huge curtain of water, or in French a ‘rideau’ of water.  

Et voila!

Local nature enthusiast James Wilson has written ‘One of the biggest and most floriferous Magnolias in Ottawa is this Merrill Magnolia (Magnolia x loebneri ‘Merrill’) is on the horticulture grounds at Algonquin College. It is 30 feet tall and 30 feet wide. It is in full bloom today.’. Oooh, gotta check that out!

Then I thought of another wonderful bunch of Magnolias in the Arboretum. So, for lovers of these wonderful smelling flowers, here’s a 10km bike route starting from the amazing display in the Arboretum to the Merrill Magnolia at Algonquin College. The ride is almost entirely along multi-use pathways.

The Arboretum magnolias are just off the gravel path at the northern end of the Arboretum near Prince of Wales Drive.

After checking out the beautiful display in the Arboretum, follow the gravel road that heads up the hill alongside Prince of Wales Drive. The gravel along this dirt road is usually packed, but can be a bit unpredictable throughout the year. Alternatively one could cross Prince of Wales at the signalised pedestrian lights and ride along the paved shoulder/unprotected bike lane along Prince of Wales, as noted by the purple line on the map.

From the traffic circle at the top of the hill head west along the National Capital Commission (NCC) Scenic Driveway. Unfortunately the Experimental Farm Pathway only starts a few hundred meters along the NCC Scenic Driveway, just in front of the big red barn, and there is no shoulder or bike lane along the section between the traffic circle and the barn. However the sidewalks are paved.

After riding a short distance along the pathway beyond the barn turn onto quiet Morningside Lane and then west again along equally pleasant Cow Lane that cuts through fields on either side.

Then it’s back onto the pathway, on the other side of Ash Lane.

One confounding little spot for those travelling along the Experimental Farm Pathway for the first time is the continuation of the pathway across Fisher Avenue. This is because the path on the west side of Fisher is not alligned with the path on the east side. Instead it starts a short distance north, and is very poorly indicated or noticeable from the east side.

Beyond this little navigational mess the Experimental Farm Pathway continues merrilly through a myriad of wonderful landscapes.

Just before arriving at Woodroffe Avenue you will happen upon the Baseline/Woodroffe Stormwater Management Pond. At this point take a left off the Experimental Pathway to Navaho Drive. Follow Navaho Drive across Baseline and continue straight when it becomes Wabisheshi Private. Continue along Wabisheshi through the Algonquin College campus until it ends at College Ave. Turn right on College Ave and take College Ave to the Algonquin College horticulture grounds. The entrance to the grounds is on the left and the glorious Merrill Magnolia is just on the right as you enter the grounds.

One can also follow this same route throughout the summer to visit the Horticultural grounds which are quite beautiful.

Et voila!

Biking to Carleton University has gotten significantly safer from a number of directions with the recent opening of the pedestrian bridge over the Rideau River on the south side of campus, just beside the O-Train bridge.

The following map is an update to a previous one I posted a number of years ago with approaches to Carleton, taking into consideration the new bridge.

If anyone needs a more specific route to campus please send me a starting cross street and I’ll post it.

From the north (Hintonburg) : purple bike logo

This route is mostly along quiet streets before cutting through the Experimental Farm. One point of note is the intersection of Maple Drive and the National Capital Commission Scenic Driveway, or Driveway. To bike the 200 meters along the Driveway from Maple Drive to Morningside Lane, cross the Driveway to the paved entrance infront of the big red barn. There’s a bi-directional bike lane that starts just beyond the barn that gets you safely to Morningside Lane.

From the south (Riverside Park) : blue bike logo

The new bridge at Carleton allows you to ride almost entirely along the Rideau Rideau Eastern Pathway before reaching the bridge. If, however, your destination is closer to the Rideau Canal side of campus, you can ride over the Rideau River at the Hogs Back Falls and ride along the Rideau Canal Eastern Pathway, as indicated by the purple line on the map.

From the east (Alta Vista) : green bike logo

This is the route that most benefits from the introduction of the new bridge, allowing cyclist to avoid having crossing the dangerous Bank Street bridge over the Rideau River.

From the west (Bel Air Heights) : yellow bike logo

This route is almost entirely along the Experimental Farm Pathway.

For more details on the history and installation of the new bridge check out this great post by Hans on the Bike.

Happy trails!

InsulBrick is a tar coated fibreboard siding introduced in the 1930’s that was  super popular up to and throughout the 1960’s. It has a slightly embossed stone or brick pattern, enhanced with added granular material on the outer surface. It hasn’t been manufactured since the early 70’s, so what’s out there is the real McCoy. All surviving examples show signs of aging, some gracefully, others, not so much. Regardless, all suggest a rich history of protecting generations of occupants thoughout all the conditions imposed by our wildly diversified climate. 

10 years ago I posted a first bike tour of local InsulBrick covered houses. The following route re-visits the surviving examples, along with others that I have since discovered around town. There seems to be no desire by local heritage groups to preserve examples of this vanishing form of mid-century faux-wunder-cladding, so I have included photos of the buildings that have since vanished, identified as white ghost markers on the map. You can see what they looked like by clicking on their respective markers.

InsulBrick has also become a popular generic term to describe the tar impregnated exterior covering first patented in 1932 as Inselbrick and includes Inselstone, Inselwood and a few other imitations. 

First stop is this great example at the corner of Armstrong St and Hinchey Avenue in Hintonburg. Many other older houses along Armstrong have recently been torn down and replaced with boxy infills but this house survives! I spoke to the owner, a very friendly french woman, who said they have no plans to replace or cover the insulBrick surfaces. One senses a lot of tender loving care goes into maintaining this home.

Next stop is on Breezehill Ave S. which could very easily be mistaken for a brick house, but it’s InsulBrick! The clearest  indication is how the pattern does not reproduce the 2 to 1 overlapping stacked brick pattern on the corner where the walls meet. The clever use of ivy helps too.

There are two more examples in this neighbourhood two blocks over on Champagne Ave S. This first one has a faux cut stone pattern.

A few doors down you will find this more eclectic example.

Our next destination is 642 MacLaren Street, and what a beauty it is! So well preserved, one has to take a really close look to see that it is in fact InsulBrick. As mentioned at the Breezehill stop, corners are where the truth is told. To hide how Insulbrick patterns don’t correspond to real brick at corner junctions, a corner strip is often applied, as was in this case.

A few blocks over on Florence St this house has been holding its own, with the preserved carved porch detailing on the porch set in contrast to the darker InsulBrick.

Over on 446 Lisgar St the InsulBrick was poorly added to the front portion of an already existing building. This example is really showing it’s age, especially in contrast to the original brick still visible on the back portion of the building. Most of the houses visited on this tour were originally clad in Insulbrick, but it wasn’t uncommon for additions to older homes, once additions were added, that Insulbrick be used. For example the 100+ year old house we live in in Centretown, not far from this house on Lisgar, had a first and second floor addition added to the back mid-century that was clad in Insulbrick. It in turn was covered with wood siding. The penetrable nature of Insulbrick allows it to be easier to simply cover it with modern siding versus removing it. I imagine there are a great many houses throughout the city that still retain the original InsulBrick siding that is covered up.

In the Overbrook neighbourhood you will find this example with a combination of stucco and Insulbrick in a manner that avoids showing the telltale corner detailing.

Now we ride over the mighty Ottawa River and check out some InsulBrick clad homes on the Gatineau side. First stop is on the edge of the Gatineau River along Rue Jacques Cartier, a bit north of the Lady Aberdeen Bridge. It appears to be holding its own.

A bit further up-stream you will find another imitation grey-stone example.

Next it’s over to the Wrightville neighbourhood where you will find this multi-tonal brick pattern at the corner of Demontigny & Amherst. These tiles might have been made in different batches that may have matched when installed but have weathered differently over time. Other than that it looks in great shape.

Two doors down is another surviving InsulBrick house.

Further east on Rue Falardeau sits this surviving InsulBrick-er.

Over on Rue Kent sits this poor little house that’s on it’s last legs. I believe it and a number of adjacent houses are intended to be torn down by a developer.

Over on Rue de Notre-Dame-de-l’Ile this house has InsulBrick on the front and adjacent sides. On the side visible in this photo it has been covered with vinyl siding.

Our final stop brings us a block north where you will find this combo InsulBrick pattern with a stone on the first floor and brick on the top floor.

So there you have it – a tour of some of the few remaining InsulBrick covered houses in the region.

Et voila!

The most amazing display of trilliums I’ve happened upon in our region can be found in a section of forest near the southern edge of Gatineau Park, and they are in full bloom right now! Here’s a bike route to get there.

This ride begins on the Portage Bridge over the Ottawa River. The route travels along a combination of surfaces including paved pathways, roads, stone dust paths, and packed dirt trails through the forest.

If anyone needs a route to get to the starting point please let me know.

On the Gatineau side of the bridge follow Voyageurs Pathway by turning left under the bridge.

The path continues alongside Rue Laurier before veering closer to the river’s edge through Parc des Portageurs.

Continue along the Voyageurs Pathway which weaves up and down  through trees with great views towards the Ottawa River. The path is named after the Voyageurs who portaged their canoes past this section of rapids.

Just beyond the small beach in Parc Moussette take the exit off the path to  Boulevard de Lucerne, then to Rue St-Dominique, then ride across the intersection of Boulevard Alexandre-Taché. Follow the bike path along Boulevard Alexandre-Taché linking Rue St-Dominique to the Moore Farm Pathway.

Ride up along the stone dust path through the heritage farm. The stone dust is pretty loose in some stretches, so if you have skinny tires you may have to push your bike along those short sections, or ride on the grassy edge of the path.

A bit further along the path just beyond the barn, turn right onto a smaller dirt path.

A short distance further along it becomes a packed gravel path. My guess is that it once was an railway bed.

The gravel path enventuaqlly veers left and becomes a a dirt trail through the woods. There are a few roots and rocks to negotiate along this path, but for the most part I found it to be well worn and easily negotiable on my hybrid bike.

I started to notice a few trilliums immediately upon turning onto this dirt path. Gradually more and more appeared as I rode along, as they began to spread out on either side of the path. Absolutely magical.

Eventually the path arrives at an intersection.  Unfortunately these paths aren’t marked. By heading straight ahead the path becomes more rugged and there’s a fenced off compound on the right. That’s a prison. Don’t want to go that way. Instead I turned left at the intersection.

The trail continues under some power lines. This monstrous hydro pole confirmed I was heading in the right direction.

Not too far along from the hydro lines the path gets a little rocky. I suggest walking your bike through this short section leading down to the paved Pioneers Pathway.

Continue along the Pioneers Pathway under the bridge and up to where it intersects the Gatineau Park Pathway. Turn left onto the Gatineau Park Pathway and followed it all the way back down to Boulevard Alexandre-Taché.

There are lights to get across Boulevard Alexandre-Taché to Rue Belleau, which has bike lanes.

At the end of Rue Belleau there is a link to the Voyageurs Pathway . Followed Voyageurs Pathway back to our starting point atthe Portage Bridge and across the river.

Et voila!